Western Electrical gauge

[Herb Iffrig]

Is this the right gauge for a coil tester? It's a 57 miiiampere.

Western gauge.JPG (49.33 KiB) Viewed 1578 times

I just spotted it on craigslist.

[Humblej]

No, looks like a volt meter to me. A coil tester needs an amp meter with a scale of 0-2 amps.

[Susanne]

it dates from the right era, but is not the meter you're looking for.

This one is from the front of an electrical contactor control box... we had (maybe still have??) these in the basement of the Posey tube (built in the late 20's), it's part of the "magic" that keeps the lights on, the emergency phones working, the fire alarms ready, and the fans moving air... There were also similar control substations on either end and throughout the bridge (hidden out of sight) to control those systems (Lights, phones, fire alarms, warning systems (foghorns), etc...)

There was a switch likely below it on the face of the 6 to 8 foot tall panel box (full of electrical components and in some cases sufficiently high enough voltage to earn you a set of wings if you practice "Fingerpokken") to switch between reading voltage and milliamps.

Ours controlled the 12 KvA inputs from either side of whichever structure we were talking about, the 480 volt subsystems (lighting, emergency generation, etc.), and before they tore out the key system, the 600 volt catenary system supplying the trains. Our gauges (and boxes) were Westinghouse or GE... I'm guessing by the range (and manufacturer) of this one it's out of an old Ma Bell central office.

[Herb Iffrig]

Thank you for the replies.

[BE_ZERO_BE]

The HCCT Ammeter is a Model 156 Weston with a 0-2 Amp scale.
The Model 156 can be an AC Ammeter or an AC Voltmeter.
Most any Weston Model 156 meter can be converted to a HCCT meter.